Presenter : Associate Professor Paul Gastin is an associate professor in the Centre for Exercise and Sport Science and Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning) in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University, Australia. Paul’s teaching and research focuses on innovation in sport science and coaching practice to enhance the performance of people and organisations across the sport participation spectrum. His work is multidisciplinary and includes athlete monitoring, performance management and sport system development. Focus areas include assessment methods to quantify load and the monitoring of athlete responses to training and competition. In addition to his work in academia, Paul worked in Olympic/Paralympic and professional sport in Australia and overseas over many years holding senior positions in leading organisations such as the Victorian Institute of Sport, the UK Sports Institute and UK Sport. He is an ESSA accredited sport scientist.

Abstract : Improved and sustained performance represents a universal goal of athletes, coaches and support staff. At any given point, the current status of an athlete will determine the likelihood for success, as well as the potential for undesirable outcomes such as underperformance, overtraining, injury and illness. As a consequence the monitoring of training has become a cornerstone of contemporary athlete performance management. Researchers and practitioners utilize a range of both objective and subjective measures to understand the dose-response relationship between training prescription and athlete outcomes. Despite this the evidence-base for these applied practices is in its infancy, while consistency in approach and a shared understanding is often lacking. This presentation will provide an overview of an athlete performance model that considers the interactions between athlete characteristics, training load and prescription, adaptation/maladaptation and performance. Case study examples will be used to introduce important concepts and the issues associated with the effective implementation of athlete monitoring in sport.